Empire State University

Janice Yanizeski retrieved her phone from her purse once she heard the text message notification. She accessed the only unread message, the message ID indicated it was from Eddie.

CRISIS IN HELL’S KITCHEN—MEET UP THERE

“Everything okay, Jane?”

It took a moment for Janice to respond to the fake identity she had here at Empire State.

“Jane? You awake?”

This time, Janice responded, looking up at the lavender-skinned young woman who sat across from her. “Sorry, I was just a little distant,” she said.

“What’s going on?” asked Clarice.

“I—I have to go,” said Janice.

“Warriors business?”

Janice stopped short and looked at the girl in surprise. “I’m sorry, what?”

Clarice raised her hand, showing off a class ring with an X engraved in the gemstone. “You think I look like this because I tan a lot?”

“No, guess not,” said Janice. “But how…?”

“I saw you guys on Marvels,” said Clarice, referring to the recent television show the Warriors appeared on. “Didn’t know for sure it was you until I met Johnny yesterday.”

“You know Johnny, too?” asked Janice.

“We had a team-up,” said Clarice.

“Well, either way, I have to go now,” said Janice. “It’s an emergency.”

“Let me go with,” said Clarice.

“You? But why?”

“It’s been a while since I went out in the field, figure I might be able to do some good,” said Clarice. “Besides, I can get you there a lot faster.”

“You have a car?” asked Janice.

“Not quite, but I promise I can get you there faster than you can blink,” said Clarice with a smile.

FULL CIRCLE

Part III: Trial By Fire

By Dino Pollard

While Mattie was in the bathroom, Greg heard both his and her cell phones give off message notifications simultaneously. He checked his first and read the message from Eddie. Once he realized it must have been sent to Mattie as well, he took her phone out of her purse and went into her inbox. Immediately, he deleted the message from Eddie and put the phone back just as the door opened.

“You get a message?” asked Mattie.

“Oh…” Greg looked at his phone, still in hand, and closed it. “No, I was just checking the time.”

“You’ve got a clock on the nightstand,” said Mattie.

Greg shrugged. “Force of habit, I guess.”

Mattie sat next to him on the bed and put her hand on top of his. Greg squeezed her small fingers just a little.

“So what do we do?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, but we’ve got some choices,” she said.

“We could always keep it,” said Greg.

Mattie looked at him. “Greg… I’m in high school and you’ve got student loans and a part-time job.”

“Right…” said Greg. “What about adoption?”

“It’s a choice…” said Mattie. “Don’t know what I’ll tell my uncle, though. He’d flip out.”

“Don’t tell him, then.”

“Pregnancy’s not exactly easy to hide,” said Mattie.

“There are ways you can do it,” said Greg. “But you’re right, it is kind of a stupid idea.”

“Greg…” she began. “There is another option we haven’t mentioned…”

Hell’s Kitchen

Hammerhead jumped away, narrowly avoiding a stream of fire courtesy of Silk Fever. His men were getting decimated by the Folding Circle. He was now the only one left, a gun in each hand.

Diego Casseas—the Left Hand—approached him. Hammerhead opened fire by the Left Hand waved his namesake, a swirling black portal to the Darkforce taking the bullets from the air.

Hammerhead stood and charged forward, intending to ram into Casseas with his adamantium-reinforced skull. With a wave of his hand, Casseas halted Hammerhead, encasing him in a bubble of Darkforce energy. He raised the crime boss into the air, the bubble growing smaller and smaller.

“You had your chance, Hammerhead,” said the Left Hand. “Fortunately, you won’t have to live with the consequences of your actions.”

The bubble crushed down around but when Casseas opened it, he found no remains whatsoever.

“What did you do to him?” asked Bloodstrike. “Vaporize him?”

“No…” said the Left Hand, seemingly as surprised as everyone else.

An energy baton struck Casseas in the back of the head. The Folding Circle turned and saw Joystick and Blink standing behind them.

“Hammerhead’s safe,” said Blink. “I teleported him from your bubble to Ryker’s.”

“I’m at a loss, my dear,” the Left Hand said to Blink. “I don’t believe we’ve met.” He motioned to Joystick. “We haven’t, either. But I saw your recent television appearance.”

“Then you probably know she’s not alone!”

The voice came from overhead. The massive form of Rage crashed down into the pavement as Hornet circled around, hovering beside him. It wasn’t long before Speedball and Ricochet joined the battle as well.

“Fancy seeing you here, Lefty,” said Speedball. “Weren’t you sucked into the Universal Wellspring?”

“I got better,” said the Left Hand. “And as you can see, the family is back together again. I admit, I was intrigued to see the New Warriors had popped up, albeit with a very different membership. No Taylor this time?”

“He’s got other things to worry about,” said Rage.

“This will be like old times, I see,” said the Left Hand. “Folding Circle, destroy these impostors.”

The Folding Circle advanced on the New Warriors. Rage took center point, colliding with Bloodstrike. Hornet took to the air, flying after Silk Fever. Ricochet squared off against Midnight’s Fire as Joystick and Blink focused their efforts on Smiling Tiger. Speedball, however, moved for the group’s leader.

Rage delivered a right-hook knocking Bloodstrike for a loop. The former enforcer quickly recovered, rushing forward and plowing into the young hero. He raised Rage above his head, hurling him against a car.

As Rage tried to get his bearings, he saw Bloodstrike come at him, hefting a fire hydrant he tore from the ground. Rage raised his hands just in time to shield his face as Bloodstrike began to pummel him with the hydrant.

Silk Fever circled around Hornet, leaving a trail of flames in her wake. Eddie had trouble maneuvering with the increased temperature, let alone his lack of practice with this suit.

“And just who are you?” she asked. “Didn’t catch you on the show.”

“I’m just a friend,” said Hornet. “The name’s Hornet.”

“Don’t care,” said Silk Fever, unleashing a burst of flames. Hornet kicked his thrusters into gear, flying back from the flames as fast as he could. He raised his arms, firing a flurry of stingers from his gauntlets. They melted the instant they came into contact with the flames surrounding Silk Fever.

“Smooth, Eddie,” he muttered to himself. “That heat she’s generating… if it can melt my stingers, that means lasers aren’t going to do much good against her, either.”

He kicked his harness into gear with Silk Fever following him.

Ricochet danced around Midnight’s Fire’s strikes. His warning sense kept him moving around, avoiding blows from Midnight’s Fire. Chord’s own speed and agility allowed him to do the same with Ricochet.

“So what’s the deal, you guys used to rumble with the old Warriors?” asked Ricochet.

“We faced them on a few occasions,” said Midnight’s Fire.

“Guess you weren’t that great,” said Ricochet. “After all, I’ve heard of the Warriors before but I never heard of you guys.”

“Maybe we’re just not in favor of grandstanding,” said Midnight’s Fire.

“If you say so,” said Ricochet.

Ricochet backflipped in the air, crossing his arms across his chest and pulling off a throwing disk from each of the sleeves of his jacket. He hurled them forward and Midnight’s Fire deflected each of them with the truncheon batons he drew from behind his back.

The former Slinger landed on the ground and rushed forward, spinning in the air, but Midnight’s Fire met him before he could strike. He wrapped his arms around Ricochet, striking him in a number of pressure points with his batons.

Johnny’s body exploded in pain and he found it difficult to move around. Every nerve ending cried out to him as Midnight’s Fire went to work on him until finally, the world faded to black.

Joystick held an energy baton in each hand and Blink’s eyes began to crackle with the temporal energies she wielded. Smiling Tiger stood before the both of them, a grin across his face as he raised his claws up.

Smiling Tiger watched them both as the three moved in a circle. He made the first move, lunging for Blink. She created a portal right where his hand was going, his claws passing harmlessly through her. Joystick moved behind him, an energy baton striking the back of his head.

The feral mutate lunged for her, his speed too fast for her to react to and the pair tumbled to the ground. They rolled around and Joystick raised her gauntlets in front of her face to shield herself. Smiling Tiger assaulted them, sparks flying as his claws tore through them like paper. Before he could start assaulting her arms, Blink knocked him off.

Joystick removed her gauntlets before they could damage her. Now she was effectively powerless, watching as her new friend tangled with the Smiling Tiger.

“Just where the hell are Mattie and Greg…?” she muttered to herself. “I swear, if they’re having sex, I will render them both impotent…”

Blink, meanwhile, moved her head to the side an instant before Smiling Tiger’s claws could pierce her skull. She vanished from beneath him, appearing behind him in a fighting stance. As he moved towards her, she threw a punch, her fist vanishing into a portal and then reappearing behind him, knocking him in the back of the head. Smiling Tiger growled in response, leaping at her as he snarled. Blink created a portal which he fell into and then she closed. Tiger’s momentum caused him to strike a building where the portal reopened.

Speedball was able to dodge the Left Hand’s attacks with relative ease, bouncing from harm’s way courtesy of his kinetic field. Casseas grew irritated with the young hero, each time finding him just beyond his reach.

“Stand still, you infant!” he shouted.

“Why, so you can strangle me?” asked Speedball. “Not a very enticing offer, Lefty.”

“I am the Left Hand,” said Casseas, anger rising in his voice.

“Yeah, and that name’s almost as lame as Lefty,” said Speedball. A wave of his hand and kinetic balls fired out, each one pummeling the Left Hand from every angle. Casseas erected a Darkforce shield around his body to protect him from the balls.

“No fair!” said Speedball.

“So you’re this team’s leader?” asked the Left Hand. “What a pity for them. The most ineffective member of the previous incarnation now leads the new one?”

“Yeah, I was kinda surprised myself,” said Speedball, curling into a ball as he bounced off the side of a bus. “But then again, the Warriors have always had low standards.” He cannonballed into the Left Hand. “Just look at the guys we fight!”

The blow was strong enough for Casseas to feel it and reel from it even through the shield. He raised his hand and the ebony energy surrounding it began to fizzle out. Casseas looked at his hand in surprise.

“No…” he muttered.

“What’s wrong, Lefty?” asked Speedball. “Not as tough as you thought?”

The Left Hand’s rage bubbled to the surface and his eyes began to glow brightly with dark energy. He raised his hand again and shouted, “enough of your prattling!”

Speedball covered himself with his kinetic field at the last time, but he could feel the extreme heat of the Darkforce through his field.

“Folding Circle, I think we’ve finished here,” said Casseas, and with a wave of his left hand, the Folding Circle vanished from the battlefield.

Hornet touched down on the street near Ricochet, cradling his friend in his arms. Rage, Blink, and Joystick joined Speedball, who lay on the ground, breathing heavily. He sat up and looked at his teammates.

“That went well…” he said.

Crash Pad

The New Warriors sat around the circular table. Johnny held an ice pack against his head as Eddie worked hard on repairing Joystick’s gauntlets, damaged in the battle by the Smiling Tiger.

“Mind telling us what the deal is with those guys?” asked Joystick.

“They’re called the Folding Circle,” said Robbie. “But they haven’t been active in a long time. See, a long time ago, their leader, Casseas, he led a military patrol in Asia. They stumbled across this old woman Tai and made each of them marry her daughters so they could produce offspring. The Folding Circle are the result—well, them and Thrash and Sil…”

“Whoa wait, they were part of it, too?” asked Johnny.

“Kinda,” said Elvin. “It’s a long story. And to make it short, Casseas tried to take the power of the Universal Wellspring for himself and fell into it. We all thought he was dead.”

“But he’s back now,” said Janice.

“I can relate,” said Clarice. The group looked at her in curiosity. “I’ve been dead before,” she said. “Mutants are kinda hard to kill.”

“Great, can’t wait until the first time I die…” said Johnny.

“Well, we did go to Hell that one time,” said Eddie.

“Do you people mind if we focus here?” asked Joystick. “We have to figure out what the Circle wants.”

“Lefty’s always had a mad-on for power,” said Robbie. “That’s why he brought these guys together in the first place—he stole his daughter’s power and kept it for himself a long time ago.”

“What sort of power does he expect to find in Hell’s Kitchen?” asked Clarice.

“The Kingpin,” said Eddie. “He’s dead, remember? Maybe the Circle is trying to take over his operations?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time they’ve tried to go in for organized crime,” said Elvin. “Thrash had a run-in with them back in Madripoor once.”

“Explains why they were attacking Hammerhead,” said Clarice.

“Good, that’s one mystery solved,” said Janice. “Now for the other—just where the hell are Mattie and Greg?”

NEXT: As the Folding Circle continue to amass their strength, they’re approached by a new player with a very interesting offer. And what happens when the Warriors confront Gravity and Spider-Woman?